Square foot gardening is an intensive gardening system that provides lots of tasty vegetables from a small space
If you love to pick fresh veggies but don’t have room for a traditional garden, trysquare foot gardening. Over the past few years,Mel Bartholomew’s idea has taken gardening to a whole new level.
In his book,“The All New Square Foot Gardening Book”, Bartholomew highlights his formula for success. His methods are a great resource for seasoned gardeners and those new to this ever-growing hobby.
Bartholomew explains his easy-to-follow intensive gardening system. Using the square foot system, you can grow more fresh produce with less space, and save time with less watering, weeding and tilling.
The principles of square foot gardening are simple. You start with a mix of soil made up of compost, vermiculite and peat moss. Then you divide your garden space into square feet, planting each foot according to the number of plants you can plant per square foot. For example, 16 carrot plants or nine bean plants are ideal per square foot, but larger plants such as peppers use one square foot per plant.
You can find a great online tool to plan your square foot garden atgrowveg.com. Bartholomew also has a serious ofYouTube videosto get you off to a great gardening season. These videos also demonstrate how this intensive gardening system is being used in developing countries to help feed the world.
Looking for another way to increase your crop production from limited space? Trycompanion planting – interplanting fast growing crops that will be harvested early (such as radishes) with larger, later-maturing plants (such as tomatoes). To find out more about companion planting, the book“Carrots Love Tomatoes”by Louise Riotte is a great resource.
Michigan State University Extension hopes this gets you off to a productive and tasty gardening season!
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FAQs
Multiply the length by the width to determine the square footage—or area—of a square or rectangle. Find the square footage by multiplying the length and width of the area in question. Make sure to keep your units the same (feet or inches).
What is the square foot gardening theory? ›
Square foot gardening is the practice of dividing the growing area into small square sections. The aim is to assist the planning and creating of a small but intensively planted vegetable garden. It results in a simple and orderly gardening system, from which it draws much of its appeal.
Is square foot gardening a good idea? ›
High yields: Intensive planting means you'll harvest a lot from a small space, so it's ideal for gardeners with limited room. Fast set-up: Square foot gardening is a quick way to start a new garden (especially with the updated method using a raised bed filled with soilless mix), so it's great for first-timers.
Is there an app for square foot gardening layout? ›
Garden Manager is a web app that allows you to visually create your beds, then say what you want to plant per square foot. Based on your information that you give it about the amount of sunlight the bed gets, and how deep your soil is, and your planting zone, it will help you choose the best vegetables to plant.
What is the best layout for a square foot garden? ›
To keep the planting simple, there are no plant spacings to remember. Instead, each square has either 1, 4, 9, or 16 plants in it, depending on the size of the plant—easy to position in each square by making a smaller grid in the soil with your fingers.
What is the formula for calculating square footage? ›
The next step in how to calculate square footage is to plug your measurements into the square footage formula: L x W = A (in square feet). How to find square feet: multiply the length measurement in feet by the width measurement (in feet).
What is the square foot method? ›
The square foot method combines all the costs for a particular type and quality of structure into one value as a cost per square foot (or cubic foot). This method produces a value based on the floor area of the structure.
What is the square garden method? ›
This gardening method is exactly as it sounds. You create a grid for the space you're using and use every single square foot, to grow a specific amount of plants based on the type of crop you're growing. It is perfect for a first time gardener who wants to have a lot of diversity, but also wants to have simplicity.
What is one of the biggest disadvantages to square-foot gardening? ›
Some of these detriments, according to Bartholomew, are the amount of space single-row production requires, the large amount of soil amendments needed, and the amount of seed used to plant the rows.
Is intensive gardening the same as square-foot gardening? ›
Intensive gardening is a generic term used to describe methods of maximizing the garden space you use to grow your plants. Square foot gardening, an intensive gardening technique, was popularized by Mel Bartholomew in his book Square Foot Gardening.
Square-Foot Gardening Layouts. Square-foot gardening (SFG) makes efficient use of space. Normally, an SFG garden is made of multiple 4 x 4 foot “boxes” (deeply-raised beds) that can be densely planted for multiple harvests. A lattice is laid across the top to separate each square foot.
How many plants per square foot garden? ›
The number of plants you can plant in a square foot garden will depend on the type of plants you are growing and the spacing between them – you can typically place 1, 2, 4, 8, 9, or 16 plants per square foot.
How do landscapers measure square footage? ›
Walk the length of your lawn, figuring that one pace equals about 3 feet. Do the same with the width of the lawn. Then multiply the length by the width to arrive at the total. Make sure you subtract the square footage of your home and driveway when calculating the total square footage of your lawn.
How to determine garden size? ›
A general guideline for a summer vegetable garden is to plan on about 100 square feet per person. Advanced: If you're more ambitious and want year-round groceries, plan on about 200 square feet per person. Freeze or can at least half of the harvest for winter use.
How many square feet of garden do I need for a family of 4? ›
Generally speaking, 200 square feet of garden space per person will allow for a harvest that feeds everyone year-round. For an average family of four, plan for an 800 square-foot garden—a plot that's 20 feet by 40 feet in size should do the trick. If your family is larger (or smaller), scale up or down as needed.
